Improvement in tobacco-presses



L. C. LEFTWICH.

TOBACCO PRESSES.

Patented Oct. 31. 1876.

UNI D STATES PATENT OFFICE.

L. CLARK LEFTWIGH, OF LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN TOBACCO-PRESSES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 183,858, dated October 31, 1876 application filed October 14, 1876.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, L. CLARK LEFTWIOH, of Lynchburg, in the county of Campbell and State of Virginia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Tobacco-Presses; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference'being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification.-

My invention relates to presses more especially adapted for the pressing of tobacco into hogsheads, but applicable also, without essential modification, to other articles requiring compression in closed vessels or casks under a follower.

The invention consists in a pair of adjustable holding-rods, arranged on'each side of the screw, and in combination therewith, whereby the tobacco or other material may be held under compression when the screw is withdrawn.

In pressing tobacco into hogsheads hitherto it has been the custom to fill the hogshead with the leaf, and apply the screw to the follower as far as the length thereof would allow. Then, in order to hold the tobacco under the compression given by the screw in its first advance, it has been customary to block up between the follower or the tobacco and the under side of the beam of the press, and maintain this blocking, while the screw was raised and additional blocking placed under that. This operation must be repeated, and requires much time and labor, to save which is the object of my invention.

In the drawing, I have represented the press to which my improvement is applied in front elevation.

The frame, which is not different from those in ordinary use, is composed of the posts A A and upper and lower cross-beams B B. On the lower of these the hogshead or other vessel to contain the material to be compressed is placed, the center of the hogshead being under the screw. The screw is marked 0 in the drawing, and passes, as usual, through the upper cross-beam.

On each side of the screw, at a suitable distance therefrom, but so as to bring them when lowered within the hogshead, I place a strong vertical rod, D, which passes freely through the said cross-beam, and is made long enough to extend to the compressed tobacco. The construction shown is such that the rods maybe readily dropped into the hogshead, and rest on the tobacco, or on the follower, placed thereon on each side of the blocking on which the screw bears. In order to hold these rods down I have provided, as the most simple means, transverse perforations in the rods through which, underneath, pins may be passed, so as to bear against the under surface of the upper cross-beam.

The lower ends of the rods may terminate in blocks, so as to secure a broader bearingsurface on the follower. By the side of the rods D, and on the under side of the crossbeam, I place buttons 6 e, which, when the said rods are raised, may be turned under the ends thereof, and hold them out of the way of the workman.

The operation of my improvement is as follows When the hogshead has been filled, and the screw advanced for the first pressure as far as its length will permit, the rods D D are allowed to drop until they rest on the follower. They are then fastened down by means of the transverse pins e e, and thereby the tobacco is held securely under pressure without any loss thereof, while the screw is withdrawn and new blocking applied under it for a second pressure.

The parts are simple, and may be applied to ordinary presses now in use with trifling expense, and are easily operated by unskilled laborers with much more rapidity and certainty of operation than in the old system of blocking.

The rods may be varied, as also the means for holding them down. Instead of the pins, rack-bars may be used in connection with a pinion, or the rod may be divided, and one part move in notches upon the other; but, of the various ways of extending and holding the rods, that which I have shown is simplest, and as effectual as any. Obviously the improvement may be applied to presses for cheese or other materials, being changed therefor only in the proportions.

I claim as my invention 1. A press for tobacco or other material, consisting of a frame for holding the cask or hogshead, and a central vertical screw, in comcentral screw 0, perforated side rods D D, the bination with side rods passing through the pins, and; the buttons ec a ll; co tructed to upper cross-beams, made capable of eii-tend-t operateassetforth, ing downward simultaneously into the hogshead, and holding said material under press.- t LINCOLN LEFTWIUH' ure while the screw is removed, as and for the Witnesses: purpose set forth. FRANK MOKEMY,

2. The combination of the frame A A B B, M. CHURCH. 

